Bangor

Troubles with paramilitaries is a strategic legacy of the peace process itself

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Took me a while to get around to this, but Stephen Dempster’s Spotlight documentary on paramilitarism in North Down is well worth watching. The scale of the activism there is way below what we associate with Belfast or parts of Mid Ulster. It’s a reprise of a story Chris first picked up on for Slugger back in November. Several things come out of it. One is Jonathan Powell’s frank admission (here and here) that is remnant paramilitary control is something …

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‘This community deserves better…Our young people deserve better.’

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COMMUNITY CONTROL: The brutal attack on a voluntary community worker in Bangor can be viewed as a blatant attempt by loyalist paramilitaries to assert their power and authority over a working-class community which reacted adversely to paramilitary attempts to lay claim to the area over the past nine months.

PM, DPM and our dFM back Bangor school fundraiser…

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An old friend from my Institute of Governance days at Queens got in contact last week. He punted me this eye catching fundraiser for Clifton Special School. Amongst the items they hope will raise the school much needed cash is a guide to 10 Downing Street signed by Coalition heads, Cameron and Clegg (or Cleggeron, if you please) and a signed copy of a poem by the deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. As it happens, I took my first summer …

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Can’t keep water from leaking into the news – this time it’s a late pool

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Artist's impression of interior of Bangor's planned Olympic-sized swimming pool

At long last, construction is due to start on the beleaguered plan to build an Olympic sized swimming pool in Bangor, providing a training facility the right length for talented and ambitious local swimmers. News outlets this morning were awash with details that Farrans had won the £38m contract, which includes £15m from the water-themed Executive. The BBC report that “construction on the new facility is due to begin before the end of August. It is expected to open by …

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